a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved manure distributor especially devised to supply a constant volume of manure to each of a set of gravity discharge hoses via a corresponding set of discharge pipes mounted atop of it.
The invention also relates to a liquid manure spreader incorporating this improved distributor.
b) Brief Description of the Prior Art
Most of the liquid manure spreaders presently available on the market comprise a distributor for use to distribute manure fed by a pump into a plurality of discharge hoses having their ends fixed in spaced apart position onto a tool bar supporting or not some agricultural tools such as shank cultivating rigs, concave disc incorporators or ground injectors.
The distributors of these known spreaders usually comprise a manure feed pipe operatively connected to a manure feed pump having its inlet located within the manure tank of the spreader. It also comprises a manifold to which the discharge pipes are directly connected, and a return pipe for returning any excess of manure fed into the manifold back to the tank.
A major problem with this known distributor is that the inlets of the discharges pipes are usually connected to the manifold at given intervals and thus at different distances from the feed pipe. Moreover, the inlets of the discharge pipes are oriented at an angle of 90.degree. relative to the main axis of the manifold through which manure circulates. As a result, there is always some difference between the volumes of manure supplied to the different discharge hoses, because of the loss of pressure of the manure that is fed, along the manifold.
To solve this problem, Canadian patent no. 1,115,600 issued in 1982 to Jim SHANER proposes a manure distributor comprising a hollow casing having a cylindrical upper portion and a frusto-conical lower portion. Manure is fed centrally on top of the upper portion by means of a hollow cone spray nozzle, and is divided equally into the lower portion which is partitioned to define a plurality of radially extending compartments to which the discharge hoses of the manure spreader are connected. Since the openings of discharge hoses are oriented in the same direction as the outlet of the feed pipe and are equally spaced apart with respect to the same, substantially equal quantities of manure enter the compartments and thus are fed to the discharge hoses.
The basic idea of using a cylindrical casing or chamber wherein a liquid is fed at one end through a central inlet and is removed at the other end via a plurality of outlets positioned at a same radial distance from the inlet, is also well known in related arts, such as gardening, for equally distributing a non-viscous liquid such as an insecticide, to a plurality of spray hoses. In this connection, reference can be made to Canadian patent no. 724,540 issued on 1965 to THE HYGRAND CORPORATION. Reference can also be made to Canadian patent nos. 1,079,329 and 1,114,428 and to U.S. Pat. No. 3,080,885.